ACTION ALERT
Prevent right-wing religious pharmacists from interfering with your right to birth control
Oct. 3, 2005 - The right of access to birth control is under attack. Right-wing religious pharmacists are being organized and urged to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. Reports of some pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions have been documented in twelve states (California, Georgia, Louisiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin). The women that were denied were young and old, married and single, and with children and without. Even women who were using birth control for medical reasons aside from preventing conception have been denied access to the birth control pill.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) has introduced HR 1652, The Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act, to ensure timely access to contraception, which is crucial to protecting a woman's health and autonomy and to keeping pharmacists and politicians out of personal, private matters. The act protects an individual's access to legal contraception by requiring that if a pharmacist has a personal objection to filling a legal prescription for a drug or device, the pharmacy will be required to ensure that another pharmacist who does not have a personal objection fills the prescription in a timely manner.
Take a Stand: This bill is currently in the House Subcommittee on Health. If your member of Congress sits on the House Subcommittee on Health (see below) urge them to support HR 1652, The Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act, by voting it out of the subcommittee without amendment.
The House Subcommittee on Heath members are: Chair, Nathan Deal (R-GA); Ranking Member, Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Tom Allen (D-ME); Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); Michael Bilirakis (R-FL); Mary Bono (R-CA); Michael Burgess (R-TX); Steve Buyer(R-IN); Lois Capps (D-CA); Barbara Cubin (R-WY); Jim Davis (D-FL); Diana DeGette (D-CO); Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA); Mike Ferguson (R-NJ); Paul E. Gillmore (R-OH); Bart Gordon (D-TN); Gene Green (D-TX); Ralph M. Hall (R-TX); Sue Myrick (R-NC); Charlie Norwood (R-GA); Charles "Chip" Pickering (R-MS); Joseph R. Pitts (R-PA); Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ); Mike Rogers (R-MI); Bobby L. Rush (D-IL); John B. Shadegg (R-AZ); John Shimkus (R-IL); Ted Strickland (D-OH); Edolphus Towns (D-NY); Fred Upton (R-MI); and, Henry A. Waxman (D-CA).
You can contact your Representatives through their websites or through the Legislator/Media Lookup by Zip Code.